There must have been at least 2,000 people on the lawn of Raffles Place the other night, when Brazil played Turkey in the World Cup semi-finals.

I was there only that one night but I can imagine that the situation was pretty much the same during other matches. Likewise at the Padang, Ngee Ann City and other venues. It had all the makings of a great outdoor party, including superb entertainment and a large, active but otherwise trouble-free crowd.

But one thing was missing - food. There was not a single person selling drinks and curry puffs, sandwiches or other snacks. A large proporion of the crowd must have been hungry or at least thirsty. Well, they feasted on football.

Here was a captive market. And we have tens of thousands of people who are unemployed and needy. Yet not a single person had seized the opportunity to earn some extra money.

Had no one thought about it? Or was it because people were afraid of being arrested and jailed for illegal hawking? Better to go hungry than to be well-fed in prison!

Have people become so afraid of breaking the law that they can no longer think of ways to earn money?

A Singaporean who lived several years in Hongkong made this observation:
In Hongkong, if a business opportunity arose, you would seize the opportunity first and worry later about whether any laws had been broken. In Singapore, you would worry about the law and check and double-check to make sure that everything is okay, by which time the opportunity would have passed.

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Johor

I go to Johor quite often and I observe that the situation there is also quite different. At pubs and beer gardens, a man would come selling roast pork. Later the satay man would come. Then the peanuts man. Then the flower girl. Earlier there was the young girl selling CDs and VCDs. Sometimes, there are people offering fake Rolex watches.

I am sure all of them are illegal. So is the lok-lok stall across the road selling the roadside version of steamboat. Whenever the police comes along, all the shutters would come down and the lok-lok stall appears to be no more than a parked lorry.
A short while later, it is business back as usual.

Do we have any of these in Singapore? Perhaps an occasional flower girl at the pubs along Mohamed Sultan Road. That’s about it.

In Johor, there are also unlicensed - and presumably illegal - taxi operators, including some who offer their services on motorbikes.

“Singapore. Singapore,” they would call out to you. Some of them would try to rip you off. But if you are experienced, you will be able to get a good deal, especially past midnight when the licensed taxi operators are too arrogant to entertain bargaining or to accept taxi sharing which would reduce your costs.

I hope the police and legal authorities do not misunderstand me and accuse me of inciting people to break laws. I am all for a peaceful, law-abiding society.

In fact, I have just written a commentary the other day calling for harsher action against companies that devise sophisticated tricks to deceive customers, such as by offering fake prizes.

But surely it is not a healthy reflection of our society when people are so afraid of the law that they become paralysed into inaction - even when their stomachs are empty.

They keep asking the government to help. Because there is not much they can do to help themselves. Everything requires permits, licenses, proper premises, safety controls, etc, all of which add considerably to the cost of doing business.

These costs may be acceptable for big businesses with strong financial backing. Even then, many are finding the burden too heavy. For those retrenched and out of work, it is out of the question.

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Hardship

When a person has difficulty feeding the family with instant noodles, how is he going to find a few thousand dollars to start up a very basic business that might not even succeed?

Given the trend of rising unemployment - and increasing hardship - without much solution in sight, could the law enforcement agencies be kinder towards those who are merely trying to earn a living?

Especially those who do no harm. Not those who cheat, deceive or steal - as in selling pirated goods - but those who provide legitimate goods and services, except that they might not have the necessary licences and other requirements.

If it is asking too much for the authorities to turn a blind eye, an alternative would be to make it easy for these people to operate within the law.

If a person wants to sell curry puffs at a world cup match, for example, could he not simply go to a police post to apply for a temporary hawker's licence?

Well, there won’t be anymore world cup matches for the next four years.

But there will always opportunities for the poor and unemployed to earn some extra income - if only they need not worry about being arrested, jailed or, worst of all for someone in financial difficulty, fined!